Sexual Assault?! Katy Perry Kissed An American Idol Contestant And People Are Furious

In the last few months, there has been quite a bit of buzz around the issue of sexual harassment and assault, especially in the workplace. This issue was brought to the forefront after a number of people, mostly men, were outed as having assaulted or harassed other people.

It has also led to a number of discussions about what is or isn't acceptable in the workplace, the importance of saying/hearing the word 'no,' and so on. So, when Katy Perry seemed to ignore a contestant's discomfort and went right ahead and kissed him on TV, fans were angry and a lot of people have accused her of harassment.

Before he began to perform for his American Idol audition, Benjamin Glaze told judges that he had never been kissed. Katy, a recent addition to the judge's table asked him:

Glaze replied by explaining that he could not kiss a girl he was not dating. And since he had never been in a relationship, it was safe to infer that he had never enjoyed that particular act of intimacy.

Katy then asked him to come over to the table and give her a peck on the cheek. When she asked him to do it again, she went for his lips.

While speaking to The New York Times, the 19-year-old said he felt "uncomfortable' with the kiss.

Would I have done it if she said, 'Would you kiss me?' No, I would have said no. I know a lot of guys would be like, 'Heck yeah!' But for me, I was raised in a conservative family and I was uncomfortable immediately. I wanted my first kiss to be special.

He later took to Instagram to express that he did not feel victimized or sexually assaulted by the singer's actions.

I do not think I was sexually harassed by Katy Perry and I am thankful for the judges' comments and critiques. I was uncomfortable in a sense of how I have never been kissed before and was not expecting it.

But this did not stop Twitter users from expressing their anger at the way everything played out. Many raised the point that if the situation was reversed and it was a teenage girl that was forced to receive a kiss from a male judge, things would definitely have been different.